How to avoid faux pas & respect your fellow zoomies

Working from home presents unique challenges and opportunities for those fortunate enough to be able to do so.

Businesses and their employees are doing their best to navigate these unprecedented times, so it’s important to practice patience and respect.

Here at VIVA! we are doing our best to maintain engagement and productivity, so have put together a WFH meeting etiquette cheat sheet:  

1. Be on time
Just as with physical meetings, show your colleagues respect by being prompt to zoom meetings. If you have a tendency to be late or experience technical issues, try jumping online a few minutes early. You can just hang out in the waiting room while others join.

2. Mute your microphone 
To help keep background noise to a minimum, make sure you mute your microphone when you are not speaking.

3. Be mindful of background noise
When your microphone is not muted, avoid activities that could create additional noise, such as shuffling papers.

4. Position your camera properly
Focus your laptop camera at eye level. Doing so helps create a more direct sense of engagement with other participants. 

5. Limit distractions
You can make it easier to focus on the meeting by turning off notifications, closing or minimising running apps, and muting your smartphone.  

6. Avoid multi-tasking
You’ll retain the discussion better if you refrain from replying to emails or text messages during the meeting and wait to work on that PowerPoint presentation until after the meeting ends. 

7. Be prepared
Come to each meeting knowing your speaking points. For internal meetings, have your tasks and questions ready to go. For client meetings, be clear on the objective or outcome of the call prior to joining.

8. Participate
Mute your microphone, not yourself! Don’t leave it to one or two people to run the meeting, contribute to discussions and volunteer information. There are several ways to interact on mute using zoom functions, like direct message (to the group or privately to an individual) – there’s even a button to put your hand up!